Nightmares
by hannahfftry1
Summary: An Aaron and Robert one shot, set within what we've seen on screen. Aaron keeps having nightmares about the past, can Robert comfort him?
It was the screaming that woke Robert up. He jerked, then saw Aaron, writhing in his sleep, crying out, clearly having a nightmare.

"Hey, it's okay," Robert soothed. Another scream from him split the quiet of the night. Robert heard footsteps and knew they wouldn't be alone for much longer. He tried to shake Aaron from sleep, wake him up.

"What's going on!" Chas demanded from the doorway.

"Nightmare," Robert said shortly, still shaking Aaron.

"No, don't touch me!" Aaron hissed. Robert dropped his hands, at a loss for what to do. Normally by now he'd woken up, leaving his nightmares behind him. He turned and flicked the bedside lamp on before turning back to Aaron.

"Go back to bed, Liv," Robert heard Chas saying.

"Aaron, I need you to wake up," Robert said firmly "Can you help me wake him?" he said to Chas. She nodded and walked over to the bed, hands on Aaron's shoulders as she shook him.

"Come on, love, wake up," she said lightly. He moaned in his sleep, but quieter this time as his mother kept shaking him.

"Aaron, it's Robert. You're home and you're safe," he said quietly. Finally, he did wake up, jerking and blinking in the room. Both Chas and Robert sighed with relief.

"I've got him," Robert said in Chas's direction. Now that Aaron was awake, he could deal with it. But she didn't leave, just stood at the doorway.

"Again?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah," Robert said. "You're okay."

"I'm sorry," he said, sighing.

"Sh," Robert said. "It doesn't matter."

Robert wanted privacy, but he knew Chas wasn't about to leave. With a sigh, he struggled with Aaron's shirt, knowing from experience that skin to skin touch helped him calm down when he got like this. Desperately trying to ignore Chas, he pulled Aaron to him, his own chest to Aaron's back, arms tight around his waist as he spoke.

"Are you awake? Are you with me?" Robert asked quietly.

"Yes," Aaron said with a sigh.

"How bad tonight?"

"Bad," Aaron said. "Not awful, just… bad."

"What's your name?" he asked, starting the routine they'd gotten into whenever Aaron awoke from nightmares. Which was most nights these days.

"Aaron," he breathed.

"What's my name?"

"Robert." He could hear Aaron's breathing calming down, feel his heart rate slowing through the skin contact and knew that, thankfully, it wouldn't take long for him to go back to sleep tonight.

"When's your birthday?"

"January."

"January the what?"

"Er… the fifth," he said, after a moment.

"Where are you?"

"Over the pub," he said, voice getting slurred with tiredness.

"What day is it?"

"Don't know," Aaron said. "Thursday?"

"And?" Robert said quietly, waiting for it.

"He's locked up."

"Say it again." Robert demanded.

"He's locked up," Aaron said, his voice firmer, more confident the second time.

The way Robert asked these questions, Chas knew he'd done it many times before. Like a routine they'd fallen into and she felt guilty. She hadn't known Aaron had been having nightmares and not sleeping. She turned away and left them to it, feeling like she was intruding.

"I'm sorry," Aaron said. "I keep waking you. Every night this week."

"It doesn't matter," Robert said firmly.

"I…" Aaron sighed. "I should tell you to sleep at Vic's," he said, clearly reluctantly.

"I don't mind," Robert said. "I'd leave if you thought you might sleep better on your own."

"No," he said instantly, making Robert feel relieved. He didn't want to leave Aaron and was glad he seemed to feel the same way. Aaron closed his eyes and was soon sleeping, but it took Robert much longer to drift off.

* * *

In the morning, Robert went downstairs, making himself coffee. He'd slept really poorly after Aaron's nightmare, so he needed the caffeine.

"How is he?" Chas asked from the doorway.

"Still sleeping."

"Is…" she sighed heavily before sitting at the kitchen table. "I didn't know he was having nightmares."

"Normally he doesn't scream like that," Robert said, staring at the counter top. "Just mutters and kicks me." He sighed heavily. "They're getting worse, Chas."

"I guessed that," she said. "Thank you for being there for him."

"Do you actually mean that?" he asked.

"Yes," she said sincerely. "I don't know how he'd have coped on his own lately. He won't talk to me. Not the way he talks to you." Robert shrugged, having nothing to say to that.

"Why did he tell _you_?" Chas asked, and Robert knew she meant months ago, about the abuse.

"Because I knew there was something deeply wrong," Robert said. "And I wouldn't let him not. I wasn't leaving until he told me the truth."

"I wish he'd told me," Chas said quietly. Robert knew she meant first, before him. He didn't wish that, if Aaron had to confide in someone, he always wanted it to be him. Selfish, maybe. But honest.

"He will be okay," Robert said. "Maybe not today, or this week, but he will be okay."

"I thought… after the trial, it would all get better."

"So did he," Robert said fervently. "It'll get there."

"How are you so sure?" Chas asked, annoyed at his confidence.

"Because he will get past it," Robert said surely. "When he's awake, it's not… in his eyes anymore. The rest will follow."

Chas had nothing to say, until five minutes later when Aaron entered the kitchen. "Coffee?"

"Yeah," he said. "Listen, sorry about last night…"

"Forget it," Chas said, smiling forcefully at him. "It's fine." It wasn't fine, and the three of them knew it. But it would be and that was what was important.


End file.
